Simba, My Next Foster Kitten

This little 9- to 10-week-old boy is Simba, and he'll be my new foster kitten in a couple weeks, after his second surgery.  We think he was hit by a car.  He had two broken legs when he was rescued from a busy intersection.   One of my adopters, and friend, Barb, and I met Simba's rescuer, Angie, last Sunday, picked him up and took him to an emergency vet clinic.  Angie's kids named him after the Lion King.  He had x-rays and pain meds.  When the tech brought him back, Barb held him to her chest in his towel.  He just melted into her and snuggled.  He is such a beautiful, sorry, handsome boy.  And so sweet.  Both legs on his right side were broken, but he didn't seem in pain - even before the meds.  It had been at least four days since it had happened.  I just can't imagine what he was feeling, but he never cried once.

Since I had just had eye surgery three days before, Barb drove and took us back to my house from the clinic.  I put a heating pad under a towel in a small crate.  Simba was dehydrated and very hungry.  He ate half a can of canned food, a small bowl of dry, and two small bowls of water over an 8-hour period.  He even wobbled over to a shallow litter box and used it several times.  He still had dried poop and litter on his back end, so after he was settled in, I very carefully held him under the kitchen faucet and washed his butt off.  I had left a message on our regular vet's phone on Sunday afternoon that I'd be bringing him in Monday morning.  I took his food away at midnight hoping they could squeeze him in and do the surgery Monday.  Since he was dehydrated, I left a little water in his bowl.  He was matted again in the morning, but I knew the vet tech girls would clean him up while he was out.

Cheri stopped by the vet's office on her way home from work and took these two pitiful pictures of Simba.  The back leg had two breaks, both above and below his knee, and each got pins.  When Marcy was almost finished with his back leg, he wasn't doing so good, so they weren't able to get to the front leg.  He'll have that done this week.

Monday evening Simba went home with Sharon, the head of Snuggle, a wonderful organization that specializes in at-risk care for kittens.  Sharon knew how to take care of him, and I didn't.  I can do diarrhea, colds, and birthing, but I've never had a broken bone.  Okay, I stepped on a kitten's paw once and broke his toe, but he stuck it under my foot - honest!

Simba's surgery is costing over $2000, even with our discount.  Heartland could sure use your help.  If you go to our website, http://www.hhsrescue.org/, and click on Simba Needs Your Help, you can read more about him.  Click on the Donate symbol to make a much-needed donation.  Or you can send a check to Heartland at the address at the bottom of the page.  Every little bit helps.  Thank you.  I'll be keeping everyone posted about his recovery when I get him.

Sauted Mushrooms and Dreamcicles, But Not Together

More mushrooms today, but of the edible variety, this time.  I was hungry for sauted mushrooms ever since I found the giant ones growing in our yard last week.  And, yes, they were poisonous.  I bought two 8 oz packages of real mushrooms at the store and used one tonight.  I fixed these a little differently than usual, and they were awesome.  Not that my usual ones aren't, but these rocked.

 I started pulling things from the fridge and announce to John I was playing "Top Chef".  For those non-foodies, it's a program on the Food Channel where cooks and chefs compete week after week to be the Top Chef.  They're given odd ingredients and have to make a dish using them.

Besides the mushrooms, I found a package of fresh basil, some grated Asiago cheese, bacon grease and some leftover garlic butter.  Sliced and sauted the mushrooms in the garlic butter and some bacon grease - can't go wrong so far.  Chopped up two leaves of basil and added it.  Threw in two handfuls of Panko bread crumbs and some grated Parmesan cheese.  Yes, I like the Kraft stuff that looks like powder.  Mixed it all together and let it cook some more, stirring often.  When the mushrooms were getting soft, I sprinkled on some fresh Asiago cheese, turned the burner off and put the lid on.  OMG!  I hadn't intended to do another mushroom blog, but this was so pretty, I ran for the camera.   And it tasted even better.  There's no specific amounts.  Use what you like, in quantities you like. This is what was in the fridge.

Barb's Rockin' Mushrooms
Mushrooms
Bacon grease
Butter with garlic powder
Fresh basil
Panko bread crumbs
Grated Parmesan cheese
Grated Asiago cheese

Four friends, Holly, Kathy, Mary, Terry and I have been getting together for lunch at each other's house twice a month for 23 years.  It was my turn yesterday, and I had made comfort food - two meatloaves, so we would have leftovers for days, broccoli, and skillet potatoes.

For dessert I served dreamcicle floats.  Another OMG!  I don't have a picture of them, because the ice cream is all gone.  However, I think most of you can follow this.  Put some half melted vanilla ice cream in a tall glass  and pour some orange soda over it.  Mix slightly and suck, drink, or spoon it down.  That's it.  Takes me back to my childhood and the Dreamcicles on a stick that were very popular in the '50's and '60's.  I don't even know if they still make them.

 This was our most excellent dinner tonight. No artistic staging, no linen tablecloth.  Just really good food.

 And, this is all that was left from the pan of mushrooms.  Yes, we ate the whole thing.  I'm not going to blame it all on John, either.  I did my fair share.

Mushrooms!

It's been a long time since my last post.  I'm still here.  I've had some sick kittens that have taken lots of my time.  So does blogging, so something had to go for a while.  The kittens are better, so I hope to make regular posts again.
 

We've finally gotten some rain here in the midwest.  When I let Lucy outside this morning, I noticed the grass had grown about 2" overnight, and there was a patch of mushrooms in the yard.  So what, you ask?  Everybody has mushrooms in their yard after it rains. 

  Well, feast your eyes on these babies.  Lucy's not a small dog.  She's about 75 pounds.  I know portabellas get this big, but I've never seen mushrooms this big growing in my yard - overnight.  Lucy didn't want to get this close to the alien beings, but she slowly came when I called her, but wouldn't look at me, so she's not really there.

 I wish I knew if they were edible.  I'd have these sliced, sauted in butter, garlic, and panko bread crumbs, and wouldn't need anything else for dinner.

 To give you a better idea of just how big these are, the Sharpie pen is 5.5" long.  The large one here is 7.25" wide.

 This is the largest at 7.5" across.  Why is there a red dot on the marker?  All of my notions and tools that I take to quilt classes I teach, have a red nail-polish dot on them so I know they're mine.  Anyone is welcome to use my things.  I just want to make sure I come home with all my stuff.

My hand is only to show the scale.  Even the smallest mushoom is bigger than any mushroom I remember seeing in my yard.

My weak attempt at artistic photography.  The mushrooms really are cool.  The areas around the edges look like dew, but are flaky and rough places.  The large darker pieces are the skin of the mushroom when it was smaller.  As it grew, the skin cracked.  Like when all the continents drifted apart from one land mass.

A baby mushroom, only about 3" across, with the skin just starting to split. 

As I was taking the last of the pictures, I heard Randy, the guy that does our lawn, start his weed eater.  The sky was very dark to the south, and he was trying to get our yard done before it rained again.  So, I pulled up all the mushrooms.  I'll always wonder how much bigger they would have gotten.

I will get some kitten pictures posted very soon.